Thursday, July 28, 2011

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Fun with Flashlights - Part 2!

We played around with light painting once again last night. We tried using glow sticks, but they weren't bright enough. Matty placed plastic wrap (colored with markers) around our LED flashlights to get some color. It worked great!


I love the sky in the background of this photo. Beautiful!

Remy!
 Can you see him sitting still for the photo? Such a good boy!






 

Make This!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirls
For some reason, Blogger won't let me place the photo horizontally. Sorry!

People either love or hate this cookie. WE LOVE THEM!

 My mom found this recipe on the back of a Cheerios cereal box way back when. I remember we made them for a church potluck one time. I stood in front of the platter and ate about ten of them. This girl named Rhonda came up and asked what they were. I told her how good they were & she popped one in her mouth. She immediately started gagging and spit it out. I was horrified! She wasted a perfectly good cookie! This is why I say people either love or hate this cookie. So far, Rhonda is the only one I know who dislikes this cookie. Make these & decide for yourself!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirls

1 cup peanut butter
1/2 c powdered sugar
1/2 c light corn syrup
2 cups plain Cheerios
1/2 package chocolate chips
2 T water

Mix peanut butter, powdered sugar, & corn syrup in medium bowl. Stir in Cheerios. Shape mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls, flatten slightly. Heat chocolate chips in water in saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until melted. Dip tops of cookies into chocolate. Place on waxed papered cookie sheet & chill until firm. Keep in air tight container in fridge.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Make This!!

Chicken pillows!
If you like Costco's chicken bakes, then you will definitely like these.

I found two different recipes and kind of combined the two fillings. Both called for gravy, but I opted just to serve these as is from the oven with a green salad. These were very easy to make and I will definitely make these again!

Chicken pillows from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, click HERE.
Chicken pillows from The Girl Who Ate Everything, click HERE.


Fun with Flashlights!

Omid & Matty were playing around with the settings on our camera last night. It's called 'light painting.' You can find specific instructions on various YouTube videos. It was a lot of fun! If you have a camera that will let you manipulate the shutter settings (& you have a super bright flashlight) - try this!!! We spent over an hour outside last night, trying to one up each other on our creativity.




 This is supposed to be a 'dog.' Can you tell?
 This is how the dog was supposed to look:







 Yay! Our favorite school!
 This pix is my favorite!
♥♥♥♥!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Make This!!

Fresh Cherry Turnovers!

Our friend Lin recently gave us several pounds of fresh cherries. They were so delicious, I wanted to make a fresh cherry pie with some of the fruit. I found a tasty recipe for fresh cherry turnovers from Recipe Girl instead. The filling was so good, I was eating it out of the bowl before I even assembled the dough.  The dough was just as good. Butter & cream cheese rich. What's not to like?

 At first, my dough looked like it was just a giant ball of cream cheese. I kneaded it a few times and it was perfect. The next time I make these, I will definitely make a double batch of the dough. A single batch was not enough.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Cancer Can Suck it!

 One thing that cancer didn't count on when it picked on my friend Christina:
she is gonna kick it's butt!

Please keep Christina in your prayers!! She has come so far to beat breast cancer only to have doctors find a mass in her liver yesterday. Prayers are needed!!!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Make This!!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownie Babies!

I found this recipe a few years ago in a free magazine I used to receive (Kraft Food & Family). These are SO delicious! If you love chocolate & peanut butter - you will LOVE these!
Remy got to lick the beater clean (for a second day in a row!).

Ready for the oven.
Please excuse my muffin pan. I've had it since college & it's loved!

Finished product. Chewy & delicious!



Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownie Babies

1 pkg brownie mix (13x9 pan size)
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350*. Prepare brownie batter as directed on package. Spoon into 20 paper lined muffin cups. Beat cream cheese, egg, sugar, peanut butter & vanilla with mixer until blended. Spoon 1 rounded Tbsp. into center of batter in each cup, pressing lightly into batter. Bake 30 minutes or until centers are set. Cool. Refrigerate.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Make This!!

Never tried Cougar Gold cheese? Oh, boy - are you missing out!!

When visiting Pullman, a must stop is Ferdinand's (WSU Creamery) for delicious cheese & ice cream. I'll admit - I skipped the ice cream and just sampled the cheese. I had a feeling I should purchase an entire can of Cougar Gold, but opted to buy a small wedge instead. I also bought three other flavors. Now I know...buy the entire can. Why? Because we haven't even been home from Pullman for 36 hours and the entire of wedge of Cougar Gold is GONE! 

The creamery suggested making this version of macaroni & cheese with their Cougar Gold. I was so excited to make it & prepared this tasty dish for Matty & I. It was so good, I licked my plate clean. No joke. Make this. You won't be dissapointed.

Classic Baked Macaroni & Cheese (from WSU Creamery)

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 1 ½ quart baking dish.

6 cups water
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 cups (8 ounces) corkscrew pasta
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 cups grated Cougar Gold®
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
ground black pepper, to taste
Bring the water, salt and pasta to a rolling boil in a medium saucepan. Cook just until tender. Drain pasta, put into prepared baking dish and set aside. Meanwhile prepare the sauce. In a saucepan over medium-low heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. While whisking, gradually add the flour. Whisk for about 2 minutes or until golden and bubbling. Very slowly add the milk, whisking constantly to avoid developing lumps. Simmer for 15 minutes until thickened, stirring often to prevent mixture from burning. Remove from heat and stir in Cougar Gold® and black pepper to taste. Pour sauce onto cooked pasta (do not stir). Melt 1 tablespoon butter and toss with breadcrumbs. Sprinkle on top of casserole and bake for 30 minutes or until the crumbs are golden.

Serves 4-6 main-course servings; 8-10 side-dish servings.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Pullman!

We are back from our 48 hours in Pullman. We had a blast & wish we were still there!!!

FYI:This is a super-long blog post. I decided to do it in one shot instead of two or three different posts.
So, sit back & enjoy!
Just outside of Colfax. We are all starting to get excited!
Almost to Pullman. Look at those beautiful lentil fields!

Our first stop after picking up a parking pass, was Regents Hall.  This is the dorm both Brenda & I lived in.
 The center window is my former room.
 Lucky for us, the dorm was open, so we walked on in. This is the back door into the dorm. Just like it was 24 years ago, someone stuck a piece of wood in the door so residents could get in.

 Hallway to the second floor. This hall smelled the same. I was instantly transported back to August 1987!
 I thought for sure the bathrooms would have been remodeled.Not so! The bathrooms were exactly the same as when I lived there.
 Regents was home to middle school boys attending a basketball camp last week. I asked some boys who were in my old dorm room if I could come in & take photos. They said yes & by the looks on their faces, I know they thought I was a little strange. I gave them a whole explanation that I used to live here, etc, etc.
 After taking Naseem around  Regents, B & I took her to the back lawn. This is where we would take our dining hall trays & go sledding down this hill. So much fun (until a friend of mine broke his back doing just that.).
 The next stop was Thompson Hall. I had a lot of classes in this hall & B worked for the College of Liberal Arts which is also located here.
 Thompson Hall. Probably the most photographed building on campus.
 Bryan Clock Tower. The second most famous building on campus.
 Next we walked Nas over to where she will be living in the fall. Unfortunately, it was closed.
After that, B & I took her all around campus. We ended up in the Webster Physical Science Building. I love the lobby in this building. There are several hands on science exhibits you can play with. I loved the fact that none of them had been removed or changed. Just like old times!

The next morning, we got up extra early so we could eat breakfast at Old European.
 We love this restaurant!
I had the aebelskivers (of course!).

After breakfast, we checked Naseem into Stephenson dorm.

One of three Stephenson dorms


Naseem's room!
 Naseem's side of the room.
The view from Nas' room. See that tall building in the distance? That's Webster Physical Science building (where we played the night before).

We said 'goodbye' to Nas and left her with her orientation group. Brenda & I went off to do our own thing for the next 36 hours.

Our first stop was to French Ad to visit my friend Karen. Karen hired me as a work study student way back when. Karen is now the Director for Student Assistance Programs. A job that was created just for her by President Floyd (because she's so wonderful to helicopter parents like myself!) and is empathetic to both parents & students. I am so happy to know she will be there for Naseem if anything happens.
Karen & I
Then B & I  headed back to Old European for lunch to meet my friend Pam. Pam & I used to work together at the Physical Plant. We were both pregnant at the same time & had our kids a week apart. Pam now works for the Department of Biological Sciences. Naseem will also run into Pam from time to time as Nas is a Biology major. ☺
 Pam & I

After lunch, Brenda & I were determined to find the Old Leonard Barn. We've only seen photographs of it and wanted to see it for ourselves. After an unsuccessful hunt, we stopped at the Visitor's Bureau & they sent us on the right path.
 Found it! 
This barn was built in 1911 and recently underwent reconstruction. It was simply beautiful and well worth the time we spent hunting for it.
 This lentil field is exactly across the street from the barn. Brenda & I just stood for about a minute listening to 'nothing. It was completely silent & absolutely beautiful!!

We next decided to visit the Grizzly Bears. WSU is the only university in the world that houses adult Grizzlies for research.

 I asked this lady if she was cutting up salmon for the bears. She told us it was cow hide. The bears actually eat dog chow and the cow hide is a supplemental snack for them. Interesting!
This bear kept climbing up the gate to the ceiling. I think it wanted o-u-t!

Listen to these young bears. They were watching the woman cut up the cow hide.
 It was obvious they wanted some!

After that, B & I headed into Moscow, Idaho. We used to frequent a little bar called The Quiet Bar while all our friends preferred Chasers. We loved the fact that The Quiet Bar had all the same decor.

Quiet Bar Alums
Happy Hour at The Quiet Bar

Naseem had a free evening, so we picked her up and stopped at Cougar Country Drive In so she could get a snack.

 Goop sauce, fries & clams. Nas' absolute favorite.
Look how happy B was to be back at Cougar Country!

After dinner, we headed over to Lawson Gardens. On the way, we stopped to see the adorable Charlie Brown water tower. So happy to see he was still there. ☺

B showed Nas a tree in the garden & asked her if she remembered it. Nas did not. 
When Nas was just two, we brought her to this same park & took a cute photo of her hugging a certain tree. We asked Nas to recreate the photo for us. She did. So fun to have both the photos 15 years apart.☺

After that we drove Naseem to the funnest photo op in Pullman. The WSU water tower!
 B hiking up to get a photo.

 Naseem & the famous WSU Water Tower! Go Cougs!!


Hiking back to our car. Love this shot!

 Gorgeous Pullman sunset!

Friday morning, B & I skipped the hotel breakfast & opted to eat at Old European again. This time we got lingonberry crepes (recommended!).

After breakfast we visited the WSU Creamery & Ferdinand's for some Cougar Gold cheese. I also bought a the garlic-dill, sweet basil & a new cheese called Crimson Fire. It has just enough spice to bite you back. So good!
Cheese making at Ferdinands!

Brenda & I heard about a new micro brewery in Pullman called Palouse Falls Brewery. We stopped in to try their new beer called Crimson. I knew Omid would like it so I bought him a growler to try. We plan to take it to a 4th of July BBQ to share with our other Coug friends.
 "Crimson"

 The nice folks at the brewery told us about the Merry Cellars Winery which is also new to Pullman. We decided to stop in and say hello. Unfortunately, we were so busy chatting with the owner, I never took any photos. If you get a chance, stop by this tiny tasting room. The wine is delicious and the owner is so friendly.☺ Brenda & I both signed up for 'Work for Wine' work parties (for the next time we're in Pullman). Merry Cellars also has a wine called Crimson. We decided to purchase a few bottles of the Crimson & the Twilight Hills.
Photo from the Merry Cellars Facebook page

We had to pick Naseem up at 3:30 so we decided to just sit & enjoy the warm Pullman sunshine until we had to go. We had a GREAT time in Pullman. I can't wait to go back in 6 weeks!!